June 27, 2008

In Today's One Minute Astronomer...

Vacation Astronomy

If your summer vacation takes you to clear dark skies, here's what to bring along to help you indulge your interest in astronomy.

The Basics

• Binoculars. You can pack a pair away easily. A pair of 7x35 optics works well. Or if you can afford it, image stabilized binoculars with 30 mm or larger objectives. Canon makes a great pair of image-stabilized 10x30's… very compact and great for dark skies.

• Star Atlas or Planisphere. If you're going to unfamiliar latitudes, or to a place where the sky is much darker than you're used to, bring along a small star atlas or planisphere to help find your way around.

• Flashlight. Get a small red LED flashlight if possible, to see your way around in the dark while preserving your night vision.

A Deeper Look

• A portable telescope. Consider a short-tube refractor with 66-90 mm aperture. Avoid achromats, because you get a lot of false color at low focal ratio. Get a small apochromat, if your budget allows.

• Eyepieces (one or two), a Barlow lens, and a diagonal (for a refractor). And if possible, a small finder, either unit power or Telrad.

• A carrying case. Many manufacturers sell fitted telescope cases small enough to carry on an airplane. Some also hold your eyepieces and finder.

• Tripod. A solid camera tripod, or compact altazimuth mount can be checked as baggage and can be sturdy enough to get banged around a bit.

• In a perfect world, you'd bring along a laptop computer to make sure you read the latest issues of One-Minute Astronomer!

A Bit of History

To get the best possible view of Mars, Percival Lowell bankrolled a trip to the Atacama desert in Chile in 1907. By way of Panama, he dispatched a 14,000 pound refractor with an attendant team of engineers and astronomers. The scope was setup under the parched desert sky without roof or enclosure, because it never rains in the Atacama.

Personal View

To be honest, binoculars work fine for most short trips, especially to dark sky in the summer. The star fields of the Milky Way look best at low power anyway. And if you use a telescope at home, you'll get to reacquaint yourself with the rewards of binocular astronomy.

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